Dread of Evil Deeds
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eṉaippakai uṟṟārum uyvar viṉaippakai / vīyātu piṉseṉṟu aṭum
People may escape an enemy however great; the enmity made by one's deed, the verse says, does not leave but follows and strikes.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“From every enmity incurred there is to 'scape, a way; / The wrath of evil deeds will dog men's steps, and slay.”
“There is a way of escape from every other enemy: but ill deeds never die but pursue and destroy their author.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
எனைப் பகை உற்றாரும் உய்வர் = எத்துணைப் பெரிய பகையுடையாரும் அதனை ஒருவாற்றால் தப்புவர்; வினைப் பகை வீயாது சென்று அடும் = அவ்வாறு அன்றித் தீவினையாகிய பகை நீங்காது புக்குழிப் புக்குக் கொல்லும்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar says that even people facing an enemy of any size may escape it somehow, but the enemy constituted by an evil deed does not depart; it enters wherever they enter and destroys them. This is the Kural's forceful moral image of a deed's inescapable consequence, not an empirical rule that every later loss proves wrongdoing or that victims caused their harm.